Indian basketball looks to be
compensating for not being in the news for many years. Despite the
cricket World Cup keeping every Indian glued to the fortunes of the
Indian side, some newspapers have been able to provide the big
headlines to the ongoing imbroglio.
With the Indian cricket team
literally bleeding blue in Sydney in the semifinals on Thursday, some
of the country's sporting concern is expected to be diverted towards
the Annual General Meeting of the Basketball Federation of India
(BFI), scheduled to be held in Bengaluru on March 27.
Normally, the AGM is a routine affair
and does not generate much interest. However, the Chief Executive
Officer (CEO) of the BFI, Roopam Sharma, has provided an unexpected
twist by calling an AGM in Pune on March 28. Since, the CEO has been
handling a lot of resources over the last three years, thanks to the
benevolence of Reliance, a lot of people have thoughtfully sided with
her.
However, the president of BFI,
Rajdeep Singh Gill, is the Constitutional authority of the BFI,
especially in terms of calling the AGM or in the more serious
business of conducting the election.
The Union Sports Ministry_which
incidentally has not granted annual recognition for BFI for 2015 as
the federation had failed to amend its Constitution by incorporating
the age and tenure class for the office bearers_has nominated
Satyajit Sankrit as the government observer for the meeting in
Bengaluru.
The International basketball
federation, FIBA, has also appointed Mageshwaran Saba as the observer
for the meeting in Bengaluru.
In a letter from Beirut, the FIBA
regional director for Asia, Hagop Khajirian has conveyed that Saba
would attend the meeting as an observer, and has intimated the same
to the president of FIBA Asia, Saud Bin Ali Al-Thani.
The BFI president has already quoted
the Constitution of the federation as well as the government
guidelines in the form of Sports Code 2011, in emphasising that the
CEO had no authority to appoint a Returning Officer or call a meeting
in Pune on March 28. So, that meeting has already been labeled as
`illegal'.
Only 44 names of the State and unit
representatives were sent for the meeting in Bengaluru and that will
serve as the electoral college.
The nominations for the various posts
are as follows:
Presidnet : K. Govindaraj; Senior
Vice president: Teja Singh Dhaliwal; Vice-presidents: Ajay Sud, Dr.
DR Saini, Shafiq Sheikh, Bhupendra Shahi, L. Suren; Secretary
general: Chander Mukhi Sharma; Associate secretaries: Shakti Sinh
Gohil, Jugraj Singh, Gautam Ganguly, Fr. Ralin De Souza, T.
Chandalraya Naidu; Treasurer: V. Ragothaman; Executive members:
Manish Sharma, Ashley Do Rosario, TA Andrapathi, TVSN Prasad, Norman
Isaac and Dr. Prakash Paquiaraj Sandou.
Indeed, it is a fair argument that
the president was not in a position to accept nominations for the
meeting in Pune, which was called without his consent as declared by
the secretary general Ajay Sud, who had since resigned on moral
grounds.
Ironically, as part of the amendments
of the Constitution which was proposed months earlier, the BFI will
remove the posts of CEO and deputy CEO. Only two CEOs, but poles
apart in terms of how they executed their job for the welfare of the players.
It may be unfair to blame one person
for all the ills of the BFI, but Harish Sharma, for whom the CEO post
was created, was too much of an angel, and it was tough for anyone, to
follow his foot steps, including his wife.
In the present context, it is indeed
a very clear case of the CEO getting carried away by the power and
financial clout, and being tempted to acquire the political
influence, in her earnest attempt to hijack the federation.
Thus, it may eventually be proven to
everyone that it is after all not a number game. For, numbers often
do not tell the truth.
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